October is Bullying Prevention Month, and schools and families across the country are having frank discussions to raise awareness about bullying. It's a subject that's grown increasingly complex and troubling over the years: while in-person teasing and harassment has never flagged, new technologies have given rise to cyberbullying, which can be equally as damaging -- and even more public. And news of tragic consequences stemming from cases of both kinds spreads quickly through social media.

Most statistics say that one out of four kids report being bullied, with numbers much higher for kids in certain groups, like LGBT teens or children with special needs. So it's more important than ever that parents and educators are vigilant in encouraging kids to be empathetic, and to become "upstanders" rather than bystanders. While it's easy to go down a pretty dark road when sharing stories about bullying, I wanted to mix up this collection with positive messages to share with your students, and introductions to some of the amazing organizations out there that offer tools for fighting back against bullying. Hopefully these videos will provide some good entry points for more discussion.

Video Playlist: Bullying Prevention

In this wonderful piece, high school students in Ohio teach younger kids about the difference between an upstander and a bystander through role-playing. They're part of the Not in Our School program, the education branch of Not in Our Town.

Common Sense Media does a fantastic job of providing resources for teachers around technology issues. This video is an introduction to their cyberbullying toolkit, available for free online, and broken down with specific resources for elementary, middle, and high school teachers.

An "I'm Spartacus" for the Facebook generation, this story about schoolmates standing up for a scapegoated goalie warmed my heart. A reminder that compassionate kids can turn around someone's day with a message of love as quickly as a bully can ruin it with a nasty one.

This video from StopBullying.gov is intended to help educators and parents head in the right direction when navigating the tricky waters of teaching bullying prevention. National expert in bullying prevention Dr. Catherine Bradshaw describes common pitfalls to avoid.

Videos like this one can be found on YouTube in the hundreds, where kids and teens share their innermost thoughts with the camera in a confessional manner. While it makes me sad that there are so many of these, it's great that these kids are finding solidarity through social media. What would your bullying story be if you made a video like this?

More Resources to Fight Bullying

If only showing a few compelling videos in October was enough to stop bullying. Of course, comprehensive and ongoing anti-bullying programs are the way to make changes in the culture at school. Still, the first step in ending negative and abusive behavior is to teach kids to recognize it and to speak up, and fortunately, there are lots of resources out there to open up the conversation. Start by checking out a few of these great organizations.

Bristol County Agricultural High School in rural Dighton, Massachusetts has set out on a spectacular adventure. We are taking the school year to assemble a set of short films dedicated to kindness, service, and exceeding the expectations of others. This student-driven experience will allow us and people beyond our school community to participate in a large scale project that transcends curriculum while focusing on lessons and experiences beneficial to humanity.

Aaron--how cool! Please let me know if your students would like to use any of our music as a back-drop for their films--no cost. Our song Fearless (performed by Jessie Bridges, Jeff's daughter) has a great line in the second verse about all of us being more the same than different that might work well with your theme. We also have Einstein (change the world--find a theory), Nonconformist..Got Your Back..A lot up of material up your alley performed informally by teens themselves. Just let me know. LOVE what you're up to. We're working on a musical along the same lines for teens ourselves. It takes a village :-)